Hello all, I attended the last WLUG meeting (my first time at a LUG) and I picked up the latest Ubuntu CDs, which I have been trying it out. Although I am not new to Linux (in the far distant past I found great enjoyment setting up Linux servers: Samba, DHCPD, Apache, DNS, etc from the CLI - using Redhat 5.2 ). I have not had time to continue and much of that knowledge has faded. :-(( I do remember that there are no short-cuts: RTFM, RTFM, RTFM, RTFM, and RTFM again - Unfortunately due to demands on my time I cannot spend any great amount of quality time mulling over documentation and deciding the best application and/or strategy to take. (Ubuntu does make most tasks easy!) Recently, I have been spending a little time with Gentoo, but after trying Ubuntu's live CD I was hooked, especially since it has the Install disc as well. IMHO Ubuntu has really stepped up the standard with regards to getting the typical home user to experience Linux painlessly AND leaving them impressed and possibly even excited by the possibilities. (well, I was) <grin> Cutting to the chase: I have decided to replace the family's main PC with an Ubuntu Box. Currently it is mainly used for browsing, email, the family finance & the odd WinMine game. I have setup an old PC as a Ubuntu 'proof of concept' with great success so far, but there are a few issues: 1) I need a replacement for MS Money. GNUCash seems to be the appl for the job. Has anyone used it or any other that can be recommend? 2) Currently we access multiple (pop3) mailboxes. Since, Linux maintains strong user security, I am unsure which strategy to follow: a) Configure one user specifically for the mail. b) Share the mail between multiple users (shared single db) c) Other ??? I am also not sure which email appl to use. Evolution seems fully loaded with features, but would thunderbird be better? We also have about 3 years worth of archived mail which must be imported (from MS Outlook). 3) I would like to setup internet sharing from the Ubuntu box and I cannot find an easy (GUI) sharing option. I could probably do this 'manually', but would like to know if there is any way this can be achieved for non-techies. 4) How do I reconfigure X, to use a different video card? 5) Winmodems <sigh> is there any hope? Many people with whom I have come into contact would love to try/switch to Linux. The problem is that many have winmodems (myself included, fortunately I also have an USRobotics external that came to my rescue). Is there anything that can be done? (easily, that is) There are more questions, but I think these are enough for the moment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Is there any way I can get my grubby mitts on 3 more Ubuntu disks? (As I mentioned before. I have been showing it around and would like to hand out the disks) Many thanks, Ivan
1) I need a replacement for MS Money. GNUCash seems to be the appl for the job. Has anyone used it or any other that can be recommend?
While GnuCash is OK, and I use it myself, it has a number of flaws. It is ok for tracking how much you spend but has no built-in budgeting feature. They also started putting in small business features but in a fairly half arse way. The reporting also leaves something to be desired. Supposedly you can create some fairly sophisticated things if you learn the scheme based reporting language. I'd rather just have a decent GUI. :) I've had a little experience with Moneydance on MacOS X and it seems a little more polished. It is shareware though so you have to pay for it. It is written in Java but performs fine on modest hardware.
2) Currently we access multiple (pop3) mailboxes. Since, Linux maintains strong user security, I am unsure which strategy to follow: a) Configure one user specifically for the mail. b) Share the mail between multiple users (shared single db) c) Other ??? I am also not sure which email appl to use. Evolution seems fully loaded with features, but would thunderbird be better? We also have about 3 years worth of archived mail which must be imported (from MS Outlook).
I'm not sure I follow why you're confused. Or rather your confusion has confused me. A) If you have multiple house members who want to use the computer and each has their own email address and pop3 mailbox then setup multiple user accounts/home directories on the computer. That way each household member can have their own desktop preferences, mail client preferences, cookies, bookmarks etc. Each user can use whatever browser or email client they prefer. I personally use Evolution 2.2 for mail (all IMAP), contacts & calendars and Firefox for web browsing. B). If you have only 1 household member who wants to use the PC regularly but have multiple mailboxes (perhaps one for business and another for pleasure) then I suggest you use Thunderbird if you want the mail client to keep the separate mailboxes apart. If you don't mind all mail from all POP3 mailboxes being dumped into one Inbox then you can use Evolution (or Thunderbird as it is more flexible with respects to POP3 mailboxes than Evo).
3) I would like to setup internet sharing from the Ubuntu box and I cannot find an easy (GUI) sharing option. I could probably do this 'manually', but would like to know if there is any way this can be achieved for non-techies.
Not familiar with Ubuntu so I don't know if there is a user-oriented "GUI" option for Internet Connection Sharing. I'm pretty sure RedHat/Fedora doesn't have one either. Which is a startling oversight if ever I saw one. I guess I'm too used to "going to the commandline" to thing of that. First you need to set "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1" in /etc/sysctl.conf and run 'sysctl -p' as root to turn on the kernel IP packet forwarding support. You then need to tell iptables to masqurade packets coming in and out of your LAN. This can be as simple as: iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -p tcp -j ACCEPT iptables -A FORWARD -i ppp0 -p tcp -j ACCEPT iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ppp0 -p tcp -j MASQUERADE Where eth0 is your LAN Ethernet card and ppp0 is your Internet connection. But really this should only be done in the context of a complete firewall setup. The above is very open. I suggest you look for good advice on building/configuring an iptables firewall on the net. There is probably already good info on the WLUG website/wiki. There are some simple and some sophisticated GUI tools out there that will help. Eg, Firewall Builder (www.fwbuilder.org).
4) How do I reconfigure X, to use a different video card?
Do you wish to change the video card in your computer? I'm afraid I don't know how Ubuntu handles hardware auto-configuration. The vast majority of modern distros do a very good job of auto-detecting video card changes and modifying X's settings automatically on boot.
5) Winmodems <sigh> is there any hope? Many people with whom I have come into contact would love to try/switch to Linux. The problem is that many have winmodems (myself included, fortunately I also have an USRobotics external that came to my rescue). Is there anything that can be done? (easily, that is)
Some Winmodems are reasonably well supported. Check out http://www.linmodems.org. Also see http://www.wlug.org.nz/WinModem for more advice. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com
Oliver Jones wrote:
But really this should only be done in the context of a complete firewall setup. The above is very open. I suggest you look for good advice on building/configuring an iptables firewall on the net. There is probably already good info on the WLUG website/wiki. There are some simple and some sophisticated GUI tools out there that will help. Eg, Firewall Builder (www.fwbuilder.org).
Debian (and I guess therefore Ubuntu has it too) comes with Shorewall which has scripts to set all this up for you. I don't think it has a GUI so you still have to edit files but the documentation is easy to follow and the common cases are well covered. g -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz
Thanks for all the replies, I have decided the following (based on the replies): * to use Thunderbird as my email client (multiple mailboxes for 1 user) * Winmodems will be inverstigated this weekend (if time permits) <sigh> * Would like to tryout GnuCash. I've had a quick look at aptitude (to install GNUCash), but I could not get it to update new packages. I just get "0B downloaded in 0S". Have I lost the plot? Will I be able to install GNUCash this way? Cheers Ivan PS: I would still like to get hold of about 3 Ubuntu Live CD Packs.
Ivan wrote:
I've had a quick look at aptitude (to install GNUCash), but I could not get it to update new packages. I just get "0B downloaded in 0S". Have I lost the plot? Will I be able to install GNUCash this way?
What syntax are you using to update your package list, and install gnucash? The following should work without problems:
bnonn(a)jade:~ $ sudo aptitude update bnonn(a)jade:~ $ aptitude install gnucash
You'll need a lot of dependencies, it seems; when I run this command, I get:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done The following NEW packages will be automatically installed: bonobo gdk-imlib1 gnome-bin gnome-libs-data gnucash-common gsfonts-x11 guile-1.6 guile-1.6-slib libart2 libbonobo2 libcompress-zlib-perl libdate-manip-perl libefs1 libfinance-quote-perl libfont-afm-perl libgal-data libgal23 libgdk-pixbuf-gnome2 libgdk-pixbuf2 libghttp1 libglade-gnome0 libglade0 libglib1.2 libgnome32 libgnomeprint-bin libgnomeprint-data libgnomeprint15 libgnomesupport0 libgnomeui32 libgnorba27 libgnorbagtk0 libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-common libgtkhtml20 libguppi16 libgwrapguile1 libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libltdl3 libmailtools-perl liboaf0 libofx0c102 liborbit0 libtimedate-perl liburi-perl libwww-perl libxml1 libzvt2 oaf slib The following NEW packages will be installed: bonobo gdk-imlib1 gnome-bin gnome-libs-data gnucash gnucash-common gsfonts-x11 guile-1.6 guile-1.6-slib libart2 libbonobo2 libcompress-zlib-perl libdate-manip-perl libefs1 libfinance-quote-perl libfont-afm-perl libgal-data libgal23 libgdk-pixbuf-gnome2 libgdk-pixbuf2 libghttp1 libglade-gnome0 libglade0 libglib1.2 libgnome32 libgnomeprint-bin libgnomeprint-data libgnomeprint15 libgnomesupport0 libgnomeui32 libgnorba27 libgnorbagtk0 libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-common libgtkhtml20 libguppi16 libgwrapguile1 libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libltdl3 libmailtools-perl liboaf0 libofx0c102 liborbit0 libtimedate-perl liburi-perl libwww-perl libxml1 libzvt2 oaf slib 0 packages upgraded, 54 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 12.5MB of archives. After unpacking 46.1MB will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Aptitude is a bit better than apt-get, and it's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. If your initial guess as to the package name doesn't work, it will tell you what packages exist with similar names, and you can also use "aptitude search packagename". After updating your package list, you can also, as with apt-get, upgrade all your packages to the latest version with "aptitude upgrade". HTH. Bnonn
On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 12:46 +1200, Bnonn wrote:
Ivan wrote:
I've had a quick look at aptitude (to install GNUCash), but I could not get it to update new packages. I just get "0B downloaded in 0S". Have I lost the plot? Will I be able to install GNUCash this way?
What syntax are you using to update your package list, and install gnucash? The following should work without problems:
bnonn(a)jade:~ $ sudo aptitude update bnonn(a)jade:~ $ aptitude install gnucash
If you're using Ubuntu (which I seem to recall you are). You might find it easier to use Synaptic, which is a graphical front end to the package management system. You can access Synaptic via the System Menu, then Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Once there it will present you with a list of all the categories that you can select software from, or you can simply click the search button on the toolbar and search for gnucash. Once it appears in the list you can select it for installation. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz
You'll need a lot of dependencies, it seems; when I run this command, I get:
bonobo gdk-imlib1 gnome-bin gnome-libs-data gnucash-common <snip> libtimedate-perl liburi-perl libwww-perl libxml1 libzvt2 oaf slib
gnucash is stuck in gtk1.2-land, and will mean you end up with a lot of deprecated libraries installed on your Ubuntu system. As a new replacement, that's a bit more like quickbooks etc, check out Grisbi at http://www.grisbi.org/ - you can "aptitude install grisbi" I believe, and you can also get a newer .deb from http://www.grisbi.org/download.en.html. Craig
You'll need a lot of dependencies, it seems; when I run this command, I get:
bonobo gdk-imlib1 gnome-bin gnome-libs-data gnucash-common <snip> libtimedate-perl liburi-perl libwww-perl libxml1 libzvt2 oaf slib
gnucash is stuck in gtk1.2-land, and will mean you end up with a lot of deprecated libraries installed on your Ubuntu system.
As a new replacement, that's a bit more like quickbooks etc, check out Grisbi at http://www.grisbi.org/ - you can "aptitude install grisbi" I believe, and you can also get a newer .deb from http://www.grisbi.org/download.en.html.
Craig
_______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior
Hmm. Grisbi looks interesting. Now that I've moved to Oz I need to setup a new personal set of accounts. Might try this one. All the screenies are in French but I imagine there is an English translation. Know of any FC3/4 RPM's? Regards On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 23:26 +0200, Craig Box wrote: oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +61 (41) 63 60 775 » www.deeperdesign.com
On Friday 01 July 2005 05:03, Oliver Jones wrote:
Know of any FC3/4 RPM's?
http://www.grisbi.org/download.en.html regards sid
Hi all Will there be a meeting tonight? Is the bot confused again? Ivan
On Mon, 2005-06-27 at 17:56 +1200, Ivan wrote:
Hi all
Will there be a meeting tonight? Is the bot confused again?
The bot was confused last monday. and a post with NO MEETING in the subject was sent to the list to clarify. As far as I'm aware the bot has been correct since that time. But, just to clarify again (and the wiki will confirm this for you). There is no meeting tonight. The next planned WLUG meeting is the 25th July, with Denise Tyrer-Harding of Pipers speaking on Intellectual Property. Kind Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz
On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 17:48 +1200, Ivan wrote:
Hello all, I attended the last WLUG meeting (my first time at a LUG) and I picked up the latest Ubuntu CDs, which I have been trying it out. Although I am not new to Linux (in the far distant past I found great enjoyment setting up Linux servers: Samba, DHCPD, Apache, DNS, etc from the CLI - using Redhat 5.2 ). I have not had time to continue and much of that knowledge has faded. :-((
I do remember that there are no short-cuts: RTFM, RTFM, RTFM, RTFM, and RTFM again - Unfortunately due to demands on my time I cannot spend any great amount of quality time mulling over documentation and deciding the best application and/or strategy to take. (Ubuntu does make most tasks easy!)
Recently, I have been spending a little time with Gentoo, but after trying Ubuntu's live CD I was hooked, especially since it has the Install disc as well. IMHO Ubuntu has really stepped up the standard with regards to getting the typical home user to experience Linux painlessly AND leaving them impressed and possibly even excited by the possibilities. (well, I was) <grin>
Cutting to the chase: I have decided to replace the family's main PC with an Ubuntu Box. Currently it is mainly used for browsing, email, the family finance & the odd WinMine game. I have setup an old PC as a Ubuntu 'proof of concept' with great success so far, but there are a few issues:
1) I need a replacement for MS Money. GNUCash seems to be the appl for the job. Has anyone used it or any other that can be recommend?
2) Currently we access multiple (pop3) mailboxes. Since, Linux maintains strong user security, I am unsure which strategy to follow: a) Configure one user specifically for the mail. b) Share the mail between multiple users (shared single db) c) Other ??? I am also not sure which email appl to use. Evolution seems fully loaded with features, but would thunderbird be better? We also have about 3 years worth of archived mail which must be imported (from MS Outlook). Since the InstallFest I have made the switch from XP to Ubuntu as my desktop. I was previously using TBird in XP but now I use Evolution with multiple mailboxes in Ubuntu . Evolution is much better in that you can set up signatures rather than vcards for e-mail messages and many other features. It the Linux version of Outlook. Easy to set up and I have had no problems with it.
3) I would like to setup internet sharing from the Ubuntu box and I cannot find an easy (GUI) sharing option. I could probably do this 'manually', but would like to know if there is any way this can be achieved for non-techies.
4) How do I reconfigure X, to use a different video card?
5) Winmodems <sigh> is there any hope? Many people with whom I have come into contact would love to try/switch to Linux. The problem is that many have winmodems (myself included, fortunately I also have an USRobotics external that came to my rescue). Is there anything that can be done? (easily, that is)
There are more questions, but I think these are enough for the moment. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Is there any way I can get my grubby mitts on 3 more Ubuntu disks? (As I mentioned before. I have been showing it around and would like to hand out the disks)
Many thanks, Ivan
_______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- Cheers Gun
Gun Caundle wrote:
Since the InstallFest I have made the switch from XP to Ubuntu as my desktop. I was previously using TBird in XP but now I use Evolution with multiple mailboxes in Ubuntu . Evolution is much better in that you can set up signatures rather than vcards for e-mail messages and many other features. It the Linux version of Outlook. Easy to set up and I have had no problems with it.
I'm personally not all that fond of Evolution. I've tried it a few times and always found myself going back to Thunderbird. It just feels unpolished, slow, and lacking in features (I use Outlook 2003 at work, and while I don't like it, I would compare it favorably to Evolution). The fact that Thunderbird has the very handy vertical column view, while Evolution still does not, is also a point against. Just my thoughts.
On Wed, 2005-06-22 at 17:48 +1200, Ivan wrote:
4) How do I reconfigure X, to use a different video card?
Ubuntu is pretty good at automatically detecting your hardware and making it work, unless it's old or very obscure. To manually reconfigure X you can type dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg at a root console. HTH. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz
participants (8)
-
Bnonn -
Craig Box -
Glenn Ramsey -
Gun Caundle -
Ivan -
Matt Brown -
Oliver Jones -
swami